Manchester United have appointed Rebecca Britain as their new club secretary following John Alexander's retirement and are set to appoint a director of football operations.

United have split the role into three following Alexander’s retirement and it is understood the club has acknowledged the need for a director of football role, having opposed it in the past out of fear it diluted the manager's role. Alexander's departure is believed to have been viewed as an opportunity to preside over a restructure.

Britain is expected to report to the new director of football operations, as will academy staff. United currently have a technical director in John Murtough, who temporarily ran the academy with Alexander following Brian McClair's departure in 2015.

Rebecca Britain held the post of football secretary at Tottenham and becomes just the sixth United secretary since 1926 and the first female in the post. Alexander also joined United from Spurs.

Walter Crickmer was the club secretary between 1926 and 1958, when he was killed in the Munich air disaster, and was succeeded by Les Olive, who served for 30 years. Ken Merrett took over the post between 1988 and 2007 before Ken Ramsden, who spent 50 years working for United in various capacities, served a three-year stint prior to Alexander's arrival.

United manager Jose Mourinho previously worked with Internazionale technical director Marco Brancaa, a general director at Real Madrid in Jorge Valdano and technical director Michael Emenalo at Chelsea.

I confident with direction this club takes under Woody. Yes, we short of results and style on pitch. But we still the behemoth in global fame.
We can appoint someone who know all about club i.e club legends or progressive style DoF like City's or Monchi who have blueprint what to do with football on pitch in terms of playing style or personel.
Make me appreciated SAF even more because the man had been done it all alone by himself. I think Jose could do with some advice from DoF. He needs all help he could get at this point. Some idea about recruitments is not bad at all. Everything that makes Fellaini gone in summer would be welcome also.

On Football Manager, my DoF buys me a bunch of kids from foreign lower leagues, and my coaches tell me they'll progress in to Championship players at best. Sounds good to me. Buy the next Royston Drenthe and Adama Traore.

How many keepers you got Jose? Three? Here's another. He's 6ft8 and he can't catch.

Monaco now have Emenalo as DoF. Not sure he would be welcome here. Dortmund i dont know, but as recent, theirs seems quite hit and miss so far post Tuchel.
Its a bit tricky because DoF must get along with Manager or else we will get problem behind the door.

I think we might go for Monchi. Currently DoF at Roma, but the work he did at Sevilla was outstanding.

Click to expand...

Monchi would be a good appointment, indeed. Though he's traditionally used to dealing with relatively low value signings - which might not be an ideal fit for United considering he's operated in a different segment of the market. And he did sign for Roma only last season on a four-year contract, so it will be hard to extract him out of the club unless he kicks up a fuss.

Quite like Juventus' Paratici as well - he's followed Marotta around as a lieutenant, and might want to test himself as the man in charge after being Beppe's right-hand man for so long with his contract set to expire in the summer (according to transfermarkt):
Plus, he worked with Javier Ribalta for 5 years at Juventus - that should hold him in good stead at United:

Juventus Football Club would like to announce that, after five years of collaboration, Scouting Manager Javier Ribalta will be departing the club to take on a new professional adventure elsewhere.

"It has been a wonderful few years here. My thanks go to all involved with the club, particularly Giuseppe Marotta and Fabio Paratici for the faith they have shown in me since day one. I will look back on my time at Juventus with great pleasure," Ribalta commented.

Monchi would be a good appointment, indeed. Though he's traditionally used to dealing with relatively low value signings - which might not be an ideal fit for United considering he's operated in a different segment of the market. And he did sign for Roma only last season on a four-year contract, so it will be hard to extract him out of the club unless he kicks up a fuss.

Quite like Juventus' Paratici as well - he's followed Marotta around as a lieutenant, and might want to test himself as the man in charge after being Beppe's right-hand man for so long with his contract set to expire in the summer (according to transfermarkt):
Plus, he worked with Javier Ribalta for 5 years at Juventus - that should hold him in good stead at United:

There are no sources, a director of football operation is a dof, it's also a technical director or a sporting director and several other names. Every club will have its own organization, the name means very little.

In that, it doesn't sound like a proper DoF role.
There's no indication in the article he or she would be involved with the first team.

Click to expand...

United have split the role into three following Alexander’s retirement and it is understood the club has acknowledged the need for a director of football role, having opposed it in the past out of fear it diluted the manager's role. Alexander's departure is believed to have been viewed as an opportunity to preside over a restructure.

For me the change is welcome. You can't shake the feeling that under Fergie we understandably eschewed evolving our administrative and management hierarchies in similar ways to most other clubs, but now Fergie is out the equation we are left behind somewhat.

The man played a key role, I'd argue the key role, in United being different in modern football, and since he's departed we've struggled to accept we need to start playing the game like every other club.

Can’t find the source right now but I read the same. This “Director of Football Operations” will not be in charge of transfers, so different to DoF’s at most other clubs. Sounds like more an administrative role.

Can’t find the source right now but I read the same. This “Director of Football Operations” will not be in charge of transfers, so different to DoF’s at most other clubs. Sounds like more an administrative role.

Click to expand...

Yeah, Mitten wrote about this in an article a while back. Can’t br arsed to dig it out, but yeah.